Randall edges Caprock

LEE PASSMORE

Thursday

Sep 22, 2011 at 10:35 PM

The only negative thing about Thursday night’s District 3-4A opener between Randall and Caprock at Dick Bivins Stadium is that it might be hard for the rest of the district to live up to it for the next six weeks.

In the much-hyped metro matchup, it came down to the final seconds as Caprock was driving for the possible winning touchdown with the clock winding down. But backup running back Silas Inthavongsy fumbled and Randall’s Morgan Long recovered the ball at his own 10-yard line to preserve a 28-23 victory that kept the Raiders undefeated.

It was a game of wild emotional swings that didn’t disappioint those looking for an entertaining contest. But in the end, Randall (4-0, 1-0 in 3-4A) had the upper hand and a strong start in district play.

Randall coach Bryan Wood earned his 100th career win, and it’s not one he’ll forget any time soon.

“This is exactly what we were expecting,” Wood said. “Obviously, it could have gone either way. It wasn’t over until eight seconds were left.”

The Raiders had taken a 28-14 lead, scoring 21 unanswered points by taking advantage of Caprock mistakes. But the Longhorns cut it to 28-21 with 6:38 remaining on a 21-yard scoring pass from Michael Guerrero to Gerado Arevalo, one of three touchdown passes for Guerrero.

After the two teams exchanged punts, the Raiders took over at their own 1 following a 66-yard punt by Caprock’s Conner Hollabaugh. Three plays later, Randall quarterback Collin Bowen didn’t control the shotgun snap and it rolled out of the end zone before anyone could pounce on it, producing a safety and cutting the score to 28-23 with 2:48 left.

The Longhorns (3-1, 0-1) got the ball back at their own 47 on a free kick and steadily moved deep into Randall territory with time ticking away. On a second-and-one from the Randall 8, Inthavongsy (subbing for Kaleen Jones, who was out with an unspecified injury) was stripped of the ball, and Long recovered it to seal the victory for the Raiders.

“It was a good game,” Caprock coach Seth Parr said. “It’s one game and we both wanted it and played very hard. You can’t turn one defeat into two.”

Caprock led 14-7 at halftime, but the Raiders tied it after Hollabaugh was tackled trying to run the ball out of punt formation when Bowen hit Logan Brittain for a 24-yard touchdown pass.

Later in the quarter, Tristen Woods intercepted a Guerrero pass that was tipped by Randall’s Mark Roy and returned it to Caprock’s 1. Tyler Junell, who had 124 yards on 23 carries, scored on the next play to give the Raiders the lead for good at 21-14.

Woods said he knew there was still plenty of game left to play after his big effort.

“I felt it was a big play but I knew the game wasn’t over,” Woods said. “It took a bunch of teamwork to win this one.”

The first half was evenly played but the difference was Guerrero’s razor-sharp execution of the short passing game, as he completed 32 of 42 passes for 272 yards. He threw a pair of short touchdown passes to Jones.

Randall didn’t give up big chunks of yardage through the air, but the Longhorns showed patience by completing passes in the 5-10 yard range on their two scoring drives.

Randall’s ground game was efficient, as Junell ran for 76 yards in the first half. The Raiders tied it 7-7 on a 5-yard run by Bowen early in the second quarter.

Caprock responded with a 14-play, 80-yard drive, concluding with a 6-yard scoring pass from Guerrero to Jones to make it 14-7 with 2:22 left in the first half.

Randall responded by driving to the Caprock 15-yard line in the final seconds of the half, but on fourth down,

Randall quarterback Bowen bobbled the shotgun snap from center, sabotaging Randall’s chance to tie the game before halftime.